A legacy: (Top pic) Designer Gulnara (left) posing with a model at the China Fashion Week in Beijing in this 2012 photo. (Right pic) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaking to Karimov’s widow Tatyana and daughter, Lola, during Karimov’s funeral. — Reuters/AP
THE leader of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov passed away on Sept 2, 2016. It was just a day after he officially passed the mark of 25 years in office as President.
Incapacitated as he was through a stroke in his final days, he was one of a handful of dominant leaders who enjoyed an iron-clad grip over the ex-Soviet Central Asian region.
